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Applications are pouring in for home energy assessors programmes at a training centre in Hampshire, ahead of the launch of the government's mandatory home information pack scheme.

Over 2,000 people have applied to undertake the Domestic Energy Course at the New Career Skills training centre in Chandler's Ford, which will provide six-weeks of training to qualify for the £40,000 a year jobs, the Southern Daily Echo reports.

Describing the level of interest as "phenomenal", New Career Skills managing director Trevor Dormedy told the paper: "We are seeing interest from a wide range of people - estate agents, surveyors and members of the public.

"These are good jobs and there's a real appetite for them."

The paper reports that there is a national shortage of 6,500 inspectors ahead of the June 1st deadline for implementation of the Hips scheme.

Hips have been devised by the government to provide information about the energy efficiency and other aspects of a house to prospective buyers.

The measure has been criticised by some in the housing industry for obliging homeowners to pay for the packs and also because of the shortage of inspectors.

Today Hips was criticised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which labelled the scheme a "poor and expensive product and one that will neither improve the conveyancing process, nor improve energy efficiency in the domestic setting," reports Building.co.uk.